Chapter 1 - Pain

Carrie POV

            I could feel the pain crushing my chest.  I thought I was having a heart attack.  But I knew.  I knew what it meant.  It meant that my mate was cheating on me once again.  He had no idea I knew what it meant.  He simply thought he was smarter than me. 

            I slowly walked towards his office listening to the grunts of their sex.  To his thrusts inside her core.  I needed to see them.  I needed to know who had betrayed me in this Pack.  Who would betray their Luna. 

            The door was slightly ajar.  I saw her bent over the desk with her ass in the air.  Adam was thrusting deep inside.  I knew what that felt like.  Sometimes he seemed possessed and simply wanted to drive as deep as possible inside of you.  Sometimes it was painful, but I tolerated it because I had been raised to believe the female served the male.

            When I think I cannot stomach anymore, I see Adam lean down and grab the woman by her hair.  He pulls her head back and I gasp softly as I see the only woman who had befriended me in this horrid place.  Tina.  She was being fucked by my chosen mate.  What shocked me more was that Adam saw me watching them and he smirked as he fucked her harder. 

            I could see the pain on her face, but he continued.  He was beaming that I had found them together.  I feel tears start to roll down my cheeks as I turn and leave the spot, I had found myself glued to.

            Leaving the area quickly I run into Adam’s Beta.  “Luna is everything alright?” he asks me quietly.  He knows.  I bet they all know what has been going on.  “Everything is fine,” I say as I move to walk around him.  “You can trust me, you know,” he says.  I look at him.  I would like to believe him, but he is the enemy.  He works for Adam.  He will always owe his loyalty to Adam.

            “I am fine,” I reply sternly as I walk past him and out the door.  I have no idea where I will go.  I have no means to survive.  Since I had arrived at the Dark Forest Pack – named because the forests around them were always dark regardless of the time of day – I had not been permitted to train.  I could no longer shift into my wolf, although there is no explanation the medical team here can provide to me as to why.  I had become weak. 

            I look to the forest.  The darkness had always terrified me, and I had avoided the forest surrounding the Pack house since my arrival.  Particularly since I did not shift.  But if I wanted to leave, it would be the one area nobody would look to find me.  I moved towards the forest border purposefully.  I slowly turn to look around me.  Not surprisingly, nobody is out watching over me.  I am non-existent in this Pack.  Simply someone to tolerate.  Not respect.

            I make it inside the forest and take a deep breath.  I can see the sun trying to break through the canopy of green trees above me.  Looking around I see no patrols near me.   I take off walking first and then running through the forest, all I can think of is getting away.  Away from the hell that had become my life.  Once I got to the border, I would renounce my allegiance to the Pack and to my chosen mate.  After that I have no idea what I will do. 

            Adam was not my fated mate.  Nor was he my chosen mate.  He was chosen by my father.  My father had been in debt and Adam had the funds to bail him out.  For some reason Adam had set his sights on me.  At first my father had been sensible and fought against the idea.  But then as time went on and his financial situation got worse, his mind was changed.  He forced me to take a mate who was not my fated.

            That time was very dark for me.  I was only eighteen, Adam was thirty-five.  He had lost his fated mate to a rogue attack years ago.  I had thought perhaps, at first, he was simply afraid to care for me because of how he lost his mate.  But as time went on, I realized he had no feelings for me.  I started to wonder what the life of his fated mate had been like.  Was it like mine?  Had she suffered as well? 

            There were times, over the past two years, I had hoped a rogue would come and attack me.  Take me away from here and from my life.  But it never happened.  And now I am walking away, into the darkness.  I can see the border in front of me.  As I approach it, I hear a terrifying howl.  The sound of my mate looking for me.  Wanting me found.

            It forced me to run faster.  To chase the need to escape.  I was terrified as I heard the responding howls of wolves indicating they were hunting me.  I ran faster trying to ensure my escape.  Just as I crossed the boundaries of the Blue Moon Pack into rogue territory, I felt a swipe on my back.  Trying to grab my shirt and drag me back.

            I gasped as I was propelled forwards further into the rogue grounds.  I roll and see the rage crossing my chosen mate’s face.  “Come back here Carrie, come back to me,” he says calmly holding out his hand.  A part of me wants to return, wants him to take care of me but the rage I see on his face is new.  Not something I had seen before. 

            I stand slowly feeling my entire body vibrating with fear.  I look at him.  Truly look at this man in front of me.  He smiles as he believes I am about to submit to his demand.  He is a gorgeous man, as most wolves are.  He is strong.  Built.  His face is perfection.  But I knew who he was beneath the shell.  He was not a kind man. 

            As I stood there, he started to take a step towards me trying to grab me and bring me back.